


A Sea Full of Stars

by PompousPickle



Category: THE iDOLM@STER, The iDOLM@STER Sidem
Genre: Alternate Universe- Hot Blooded Reasoner, Gen, Gen but can be read AmeChris, I probably went overboard lol, Lots of liberties taken with this AU, Science Fiction, mech AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-31
Updated: 2018-05-31
Packaged: 2019-05-16 12:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14811459
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PompousPickle/pseuds/PompousPickle
Summary: Chris Koron spent all his free time staring at either his books or at the stars. His fellow pilot finds out why.





	A Sea Full of Stars

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nerav](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerav/gifts).



> Happy Birthday Nerav!! I know it's not much, but I remember you talking about wanting to work on stuff from the Hot-Blooded Reasoner event and felt a little inspired. Hopefully this will suffice and hopefully you recover from your sickness soon!

Chris Koron spent many of his off hours in the observation deck, staring at the stars sprawling out around them. He would get lost in them, charting them out with his hands as he stared blithely into space, tracing around the lights as if he could feel them between his fingers. He jumped when Amehiko placed a tray of food down next to him on the floor. He looked up at his fellow pilot with a question in his eyes, but before he could ask, Amehiko already waved him off.

“Kitamura. He was concerned so he sent me after you,” he quickly explained. “You’ve been up here since our last battle and missed the past two meals. The cook is beginning to suspect you don’t like his cooking.”

That made Chris shoot to attention, sitting up straight with a considerable amount of concern in his eyes. “Oh my goodness! I had lost track of time! I didn’t mean to ins-“

“I’m just kidding.”

Amehiko sat down next to his fellow pilot, one of his two field partners. He looked over at the man for a long moment as he picked up the tray of food and sat it on his lap. He gave a polite customary bow before grabbing the fork and digging in. He started slow, at first, but soon after the first swallow, the man was eating like a starved dog. “Thank you!” He finally said, swallowing thickly as he grinned over at Amehiko.

Amehiko only sighed. He really did get saddled with some strange partners. Kitamura at least had his motivations. His brother had been a pilot, and lost his life fighting off the Kuroi. Amehiko had never pressed for details, and Sora himself always put on a brave face, but the hurt was plain as day. He wore the loss on him like filth tarnishing his clean white uniform. It was blindingly apparently every time the man stepped into his mech.

Koron, however…

“Ah…did I do something wrong? You seem to be staring. Perhaps I _was_ eating rather messily…” Chris pulled out a napkin and began to pat himself down, wiping the stew broth from his chin. “My apologies. I hadn’t realized how long I’ve been eating only seaweed chips up here. Asselin-san certainly has a talent in the kitchen though, doesn’t he?”

“Seaweed chips, hm?” Amehiko glanced over at Chris. There were a notebooks stacked up next to him, with one sprawled out, scribbled with notes and maps that Amehiko could barely make heads or tails of. “You were a researcher, right? Is that what you do up here all day? Research? Notes?”

“Sometimes,” Chris started slow, following Amehiko’s gaze down to the notebooks. Suddenly, his posture changed entirely. A smile crept upon his face as he straightened up and grabbed one of the books. “Ah I see! Were you interested, Amehiko-san? I’m sure I can find a good place for you to start, if you are! I have a lot of different books you can borrow on different planetary biostructures. Of course, I’ve been working on the theories of aquatic structures myself, so if you’d like to start there I think I have a few books in my bedroom that might be able to start you off!”

Amehiko couldn’t help but laugh. He had known this, of course. Chris had originally started his life on the ship as a researcher, working with the Scientific Engagement and Management program to preserve life on Kuroi-invaded planets. He had a real gift for working with aquatic lifeforms, from what he understood. What he never quite understood was how a man like that, polite and kind and maybe one-hundred pounds soaking wet, decided to sign on to be a pilot of a 200-ton metal war machine.

“I’ll pass. But I think I get it now.” Amehiko finally said with a smile, turning his attention up to the stars. “You lost your planet to the Kuroi, didn’t you? Perhaps you were a researcher there, taking care to restore life lost from other systems that were sucked clean. But when they came to your system…” Amehiko trailed off, eyeing Chris to make sure he wasn’t stepping over any lines. When the man didn’t say anything, he continued. “It would explain the books and the long nights, and the comfort you find staring up at other galaxies. You’re no different than Kitamura then, right? Revenge is perhaps a strong motivator, but it’s often one that leads to destruction.” 

Chris swallowed his food and smiled at Amehiko, causing the pilot to bite back mild surprise. He always knew Koron to be courteous and often mannerly, but never to the point where digging up such harmful truths would slide off his back. “You’re truly amazing, Amehiko-san! It’s no wonder they call you the Possessor of the Mystic Eye.”

Amehiko couldn’t help but roll his eyes at the nickname. That wasn’t how he earned the title, but he didn’t bother to correct him. Chris only continued, placing down his now-empty try beside him, neatly stacking the bowls and cups. “However, I’m sorry to inform you that you’re off base.”

At this, Amehiko was truly surprised. Rarely was he ever wrong in his observations. “I’m listening.”

Chris just laughed, a hearty and honest sound as he threw his head back, eyes to the stars. “When I was younger, my mother would tell me stories about the Old Galaxy. Passed down from her grandmother, who was told them by her grandmother, and so on. I was fascinated by Earth and the life that grew there. Especially the aquatic life. Even in thousands of years, people couldn’t fully understand all the secrets that the oceans had to offer. I began to study it as an adult. I couldn’t help myself! Did you know that by the time the Kuroi had annihilated Earth, only a third of the world’s oceans had been explored thoroughly? It’s truly incredible, isn’t it?”

Amehiko couldn’t help but laugh. It was strange, almost absurd. He came so alive when talking about ocean life, of all things.  More than that, ocean life on a planet long-extinct. Human life had managed to spread out across many galaxies by the time the Kuroi sucked it dry, but Amehiko could only imagine that millions of different species were lost in the catastrophe. “So you study Earth then?”

Chris nodded enthusiastically, pleased that someone would want to listen to his thoughts and fascinations. In truth, Amehiko wasn’t entirely interested. But knowing where Koron was coming from could make their unit a lot stronger, in the long run. “Of course! All aquatic life, really. But you can’t know the present if you don’t have a firm grip of the past. History runs through all of our veins. And it runs through every ocean on every terraformed planet. Every lifeform evolved from Earth. It’s only natural to be fascinated with such a place, right?”

Something about his words struck a chord, in a strange way. Legacy and history were important to the Kuzunoha family. Vital, even. That’s why he wore the uniform today. Amehiko hated technology, and never could hope to understand it fully. But his family’s bloodline held a spiritual power in their hands to communicate with the mech suits in a way very few could. It was as though a ghost were speaking to him from inside the machine, calling to him from the stars. It had frightened him, when he was younger. But now, it was just a piece of him. A thread from his family that ran through his veins, much like the ocean seemed to run through Chris’s.  

“You didn’t answer my question,” Amehiko then said with a sly smile. He looked up, realizing he was looking at the veins in his own wrists quite intently. Chris flustered over, blinking at him before turning his eyes away to his notebooks. Amehiko wondered how long the other man had been staring at him, before deeming it an unimportant detail. “Why a pilot? You were a researcher with S.E.M for some time. Hazama-san was quite fond of you, if I recall. Why not stay somewhere you could be safe?”

“Ah…” Chris mulled it over, as though trying to think of a way to fully connect his reasoning. “Do you remember when we went to the Old Galaxy?”

How could he forget? Amehiko nodded. The ship had picked up a distress call. They had rescued three young men, near-death and barely surviving off of the poorly terraformed vegetation on one of Jupiter’s moons. It seemed like such a long time ago. But now the Jupiter pilot unit was every bit as part of the army as Amehiko and the others.

“I didn’t get to go to Earth. But I saw a small glimpse.” Chris’s voice slowed, quieted now to a near whisper. One hand balled up into pants, gripping the fabric. The other hand was shaking, gently caressing one of his notebooks of research.

“The oceans,” he finally said softly. “They were dry.”

For a grown man to cry over a body of water on a long-abandoned planet…Amehiko realized a part of him should find it embarrassing. But somehow, the quiet tears falling down Chris’s face hardly seemed shameful. In fact, Amehiko couldn’t help but feel like the man really did have a good reason to fight.

“I see,” he finally nodded, looking up at the stars himself. “That’s about when you signed on for Kitamura’s unit, so it makes sense. You’re fighting so life doesn’t end up like the planet you came to love. A strange reason. But I suppose it’s your own.”

Chris nodded, a smile creeping back onto his face as he glanced over at Amehiko. The man smiled back, encouragingly. He didn’t mind fighting alongside a man like Chris Koron at all, he decided. They stared at each other for a long moment, Amehiko taking in the details of Chris’s face, before the other man cleared his throat awkwardly and looked back up at the sky. “The stars,” he finally said. “They’re a bit like the oceans too, don’t you think?”

“Not particularly,” Amehiko laughed. “Are you going to give me a lecture on both the sky and the sea? You really do study too much. Kitamura has every right to be worried.”

Chris bristled again, and Amehiko considered clarifying that he was just teasing. But then the man simple sighed, brushing his golden hair out of his face. “I can’t say I do much studying when I’m up here. I try, of course. But I mostly just like to watch the stars and planets. I like to imagine they’re like ocean life. They all move gracefully around each other in harmony. With unimaginable depths we haven’t explored. Thousands upon millions of undiscovered worlds. But every single life they hold is worth protecting. It’s dangerous. And scary. But I want to protect them. With both you and Sora-san. I find it all pretty amazing, don’t you think?”

“Indeed,” Amehiko agreed in a quick breath. “Quite amazing,” he finally said, realizing that as he said it, he wasn’t looking up at the stars at all.


End file.
